


Stepping Stones

by Aravis_Bryir



Series: Hatchetfield One-Shots [1]
Category: Black Friday - Team StarKid
Genre: Autistic Hannah Foster, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:33:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24320626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aravis_Bryir/pseuds/Aravis_Bryir
Summary: "Sorry it's kinda hard to study while raising a two-year-old."
Relationships: Hannah Foster & Ethan Green, Lex Foster & Ethan Green, Lex Foster/Ethan Green
Series: Hatchetfield One-Shots [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1755763
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	Stepping Stones

Lex and Ethan sat on the floor of her bedroom in the trailer trying to get homework done. Year 7 was a lot harder than year 6 had been and they needed all the help they could get and because  
their parents didn’t give a shirt, they were helping each other.

“Do you have an answer for question 17?” Ethan asked trying to decipher the maths problem in his textbook.

“Nope, I only just started 16.” Lex said, rubbing out a mistake in her notebook. 

“No!” Hannah echoed from her corner of the room. She was a few months shy of turning three and loved to repeat any simple word Lex said. She still couldn’t walk yet with worried Lex, but she  
would get there eventually. Hannah then returned to babbling to one of her stuffed animals.

“Even Banana doesn’t know the answer.” Ethan laughed.

“Because she’s two, dumbash!” Lex laughed along side him. She was glad to have a good friend in Ethan. He was her only friend and Hannah liked him too, which was definitely a bonus. Though,  
sometimes Lex did wish that maybe one day they could be more than friends.

“Do you have any idea how to solve it though?”

Lex looked closer at the problem. XY–X+7=35 Y=8 Solve for X.

“You’ve got to work it backwards.” Lex said, solving question 16 before getting to work on the one Ethan was on.

“But that’s effort. Why can’t it be easy like all the other ones? X+Y=72 Y=15. See that’s a simple one with just addition and subtraction, but now they want us to multiply!” He flopped backwards,  
narrowly missing smacking his head on a cardboard box Lex used as a chest of drawers.

“Oh diddums.” She said working out the problem before scribbling down the answer in her notebook.

“Did you solve it already?”

“Yeah, it’s not that hard.”

“Can you tell me the answer?” He sat up trying to look at the answer over her shoulder.

“No way, work it out yourself.” She snapped the book shut.

“C’mon Lex, just let me see.”

“See!” Hannah said from her corner.

“Look, even Hannah wants to know the answer, surely you won’t deny a toddler.”

“She can’t toddle yet, so she’s not technically a toddler, just a bum-shuffling crawler.”

“Share the answer with the bum-shuffling crawler then.” Ethan tried to grab the notebook from Lex but she held it out of his reach.

“You know with the amount of time you’ve just wasted complaining and trying to cheat you could’ve solved the problem for yourself.”

“You know I’m rubbish at times tables. C’mon at least just give me a hint? Like tell me what XY is and I’ll figure out the rest.” Ethan was still half-heartedly trying to grab the notebook over the  
top of Lex’s shoulder. 

“No, you’ve got to learn this stuff or you’ll flunk the test and be held back next year.”

“Says you, aren’t you practically failing every class?”

“Sorry that it’s kinda hard to study while raising a two-year-old.” She gave him a look.

“Oh, right, yeah, sorry.” He looked rather sheepish.

“Okay.” They heard Hannah say from her corner before she wobbled up to her feet. She’d been able to stand for ages but never liked to do it for too long, she always ended up crying if her feet  
were touching something for any length of time. But so far she seemed okay. Lex always watched her when she stood, in case maybe she’d take a step, but Hannah had always ended up crying  
before she’d been up long enough to even try. But not today it seemed.

Hannah had been standing for a record twenty seconds without a tear. She definitely looked like she wanted to sit back down, but something was keeping her standing. Slowly Hannah took a  
step and then another while Lex watched gobsmacked.

“Oh my god.” She whispered.

“What?” Ethan looked up and saw Hannah take another step. “Oh my god.”

She walked all the way over to them, almost falling a few times, but managed to stay upright. When she reached them and before either of them could react, she took the notebook from Lex and  
held it out to Ethan.

“Et’an see.” She said.

Slowly he took it from her, “Thanks, Banana Split.”

She nodded and turned to go back to her corner. It was in trying to turn around that she lost her balance and fell to the floor. Lex instantly scooped up her sister who now had tears in her eyes.

“That was amazing Hannah!” She hugged her close. “Don’t cry you did so well! You can walk!” She turned to Ethan. “Did you see that? She can walk!”

Ethan nodded. “I saw that. It was so cool!”

“Hear that, Hannah? Ethan thinks you’re cool.”

“’Ool!” Hannah parroted, tears now gone.

“I say we go out for ice cream to celebrate! Maths can wait until later.” Ethan said, standing up.

“I don’t have any money, Ethan.” Lex said. She never had money. She’d occasionally steal some from her mum, but that never ended well.

“Don’t worry, I took twenty bucks from my dad’s wallet, ice creams are on me.” He helped her up to her feet, Hannah still in her arms.

“You really don’t have to.”

“I want to. Come on.” He pushed her out the trailer door.

They walked down the road, headed for the ice cream parlour. Ethan jogged ahead a little bit before turning around to face Lex.

“Okay, Banana, you wanna show us your new trick again?” He asked, holding out is hands to Hannah.

Lex lowered Hannah too the ground, but she held her feet up, starring at Ethan, seeming to think about whether or not it was worth her while to walk again. Slowly she placed her feet on the  
ground, and once she was steady, Lex let go. She walked over to Ethan, a bit faster than she had walked in the trailer. She stumbled on the uneven pavement right before she reached Ethan,  
beginning to fall, but he caught and lifted her up.

“Atta girl!” He tickled her side, causing her to let out a fit of giggles before he hoisted her up so she sat on his shoulders. She immediately began to lightly play drums on his head.

They walked the rest of the way to the ice cream parlour and went straight up to the counter.

“Okay, Lex what do you want?”

“Oh, it’s fine I don’t really want any.”

“Lex, just choose a flavour, don’t feel bad about letting me pay.” He said softly to her so that the cashier wouldn’t hear.

“Fine. Get me a scoop of chocolate.”

The guy serving them quickly gave her a scoop of chocolate ice cream in a waffle cone.

“And what will Split have?”

“Get her a cup of the strawberry.”

“Pink!” Hannah said when she saw the server put out a small cup of strawberry ice cream.

“And I’ll get a cone of mint choc-chip.”

“That’ll be $13.50.” The cashier says once he’d finished scooping Ethan’s serve. Ethan hands over the money and the three of them sit down and enjoy their ice creams. 

By the time they’ve finished, the sun had begun to set and Hannah’s face was covered in ice cream. Lex pulled out a makeup wipe and began cleaning her face, much to Hannah’s dislike.

“Bad!”

“Hannah I’ve gotta clean your face, just sit still and I’ll be done soon.” Lex said, on the edge of loosing patience. This happened every time Hannah got her face dirty.

Soon she was cleaned up, and the three of them began the walk back to the trailer.

“I’ll have to go once I grab my stuff.” Ethan said. His dad always got mad if he was late to dinner.

Lex nodded as they went into the trailer. Ethan shoved his maths homework into his backpack and gave Lex and Hannah a hug each.

“See you ladies tomorrow.” He said as he walked out the door.

“See ya.” Lex called after him.

“Ba-bye.” Hannah waved.

Lex quickly went to making them some sort of dinner for Hannah, which wasn’t much because of the ice cream and lack of food in the trailer. Once the food was eaten, Lex brushed her sister’s  
teeth and tucked her into bed, humming her a lullaby.

Once she was sure Hannah was asleep, she pulled out a crumpled notebook. She’d stolen it a few days after Hannah was born to keep track of all her milestones. It had lists of words she’d learnt  
as well as the dates of her first smile, her first wave, her first laugh and first time standing. At the end of the list of milestones she added a new one.

FIRST STEPS 22/9/12 AGE: 2 YEARS 9 MONTHS.

She closed the notebook and put it back in its’ hiding place, she didn’t want to risk her mum finding it and throwing it out. 

She climbed into bed next to Hannah, holding her close and went to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> In case you were wondering X=4
> 
> Yeah, I did maths for this fanfiction and I hate maths, haven't done it since year 11 (2016 if you were wondering)


End file.
